“There is clearly a pastoral dimension,” the archbishop said in a Vatican News interview published March 10. “We have the task of promoting and defending the faith, preaching the faith. This is an eminently pastoral role. It involves promoting the Catholic faith so that it is increasingly known and, when there are problems, defending this faith as well.”

“Many times I heard Pope Benedict XVI, when he was Cardinal Ratzinger and Prefect of the Congregation, say that ‘we must defend the faith of simple believers, not the faith of theologians.’ They already have their ways of knowing how things are! It seems to me that this is a very valid and correct intuition,” Archbishop Ladaria said.

Pope Francis has described the congregation’s work as having a “pastoral face.”

For Archbishop Ladaria, the congregation has an “eminently pastoral role” in disciplinary matters that can affect many people. While this does not mean avoiding closely studying dossiers, the goal of such work is the salvation of souls.

“This is always the primary purpose of all our work,” the archbishop said.

The Spanish-born Jesuit has headed the congregation since last year, when he replaced Cardinal Müller. Benedict XVI named him as the congregation’s secretary in 2008. In 2004, St. John Paul II had named him Secretary-General of the International Theological Commission.

As a Jesuit, he said, he has some commonalities with Pope Francis in similar formation or shared acquaintances that help his work with the Pope. However, had only met him once before the 2013 conclave during a visit of Argentina’s bishops to the Vatican.

“Whether he’s a Jesuit or not makes no difference to me: the Pope is the Pope.”

Archbishop Ladaria said he holds his position as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as “a simple question of obedience.”

“Pope Francis called me and told me his decision, and I said: ‘Holy Father, if that’s what you have decided, I accept and say no more.’ So that’s the first thing.”

“Of course it is a responsibility and I must say that the first few days I did not sleep too well… But slowly you get used to the idea and see that it is possible, especially knowing this is what the Pope wants. So it’s better not to think too much about it: the whole thing is done and dusted!”

The Pope’s reform of the Roman Curia has not yet resulted in any directives to the CDF, Ladaria said.

“When we do, we will accept them willingly and cooperate accordingly, as always,” he said. “Our collaboration with Pope Francis will be total, of course, but we have received no concrete indications as yet. When we do, we will accept them happily.”

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Vatican City, Feb 6, 2018 / 05:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his message for the upcoming Lenten season, Pope Francis urged people to renew their enthusiasm for the faith, using this season of prayer, fasting and almsgiving as an opportunity to stoke the flame of charity in their heart.

“Above all, I urge the members of the Church to take up the Lenten journey with enthusiasm, sustained by almsgiving, fasting and prayer,” the Pope said in his message, published Feb. 6.

“If, at times, the flame of charity seems to die in our own hearts, know that this is never the case in the heart of God! He constantly gives us a chance to begin loving anew.”

At the Easter Vigil, we will light the Easter candle, he said, explaining how it symbolizes a “new fire,” and will “slowly overcome the darkness and illuminate the liturgical assembly.”

“May the light of Christ rising in glory dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds,” he continued. “By listening to God’s word and drawing nourishment from the table of the Eucharist, may our hearts be ever more ardent in faith, hope and love.”

Written on the Solemnity of All Saints, the Pope’s message for Lent is on the theme: “Because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold (Matt. 24:12).”

In the message, he warned against both cold hearts and “false prophets,” which he said tempt us to be led and enslaved by our emotions, or by a desire for wealth. “How many of God’s children are mesmerized by momentary pleasures, mistaking them for true happiness!” he wrote.

This is the core of Pope Francis’ Lenten message: to draw attention to the fact that there are many experiences which “whittle away all of [our] enthusiasm and zeal” for the faith, Cardinal Peter Turkson told CNA Feb. 6.

Head of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, he said that living as a disciple of Jesus has a lot of challenges, and therefore Francis’ message highlights the need to re-kindle the fire of our faith.

“Love can become cold because there are very many things which prevent it from sustaining the warmth of enthusiasm that it had,” Turkson explained. Therefore, this message invites us, through prayer, fasting and almsgiving, to re-inspire our love of God and neighbor.

“And this is crucial because all the good works that we decide to do… are all animated by a sense of love,” he continued.

Seeing the problems in the world and within ourselves, the solution is to turn to the Church, Pope Francis said, because along with the truth, she “offers us in the Lenten season the soothing remedy of prayer, almsgiving and fasting.”

One of the biggest obstacles to charity, he continued, is the evil of greed of money, which is what almsgiving helps to counteract.

“How I would like almsgiving to become a genuine style of life for each of us!” the Pope said. “How I would like us, as Christians, to follow the example of the Apostles and see in the sharing of our possessions a tangible witness of the communion that is ours in the Church!”

Almsgiving is very fitting during Lent, he continued, but added that he hopes that “even in our daily encounters with those who beg for our assistance, we would see such requests as coming from God himself.”

Almsgiving, along with prayer and fasting, are intended as instruments to fight both sin within ourselves and its effect on the world. For from greed, follows “the rejection of God and his peace,” he said. We begin to prefer “our own desolation rather than the comfort found in his word and the sacraments.”

Greed also may lead us to violence, he noted, pointing to how we lash out, in particular, at those we think threaten the “certainties” of our lives, such as the unborn child, the elderly and infirm, the immigrant, or even just the neighbor “who does not live up to our expectations.”

Almsgiving is a way of setting us free from greed, acknowledging that “what I possess is never mine alone.”

In fasting, too, we are given the opportunity to grow, he said, both by experiencing the hunger that many people around the world experience daily, and by expressing our own “spiritual hunger and thirst for life in God.”

“Fasting wakes us up. It makes us more attentive to God and our neighbor. It revives our desire to obey God, who alone is capable of satisfying our hunger,” he said.

He explained that devoting more time to prayer also helps us to root out vice from our hearts and to find consolation in God, who is our Father and who “wants us to live life well.”

“Lent summons us, and enables us, to come back to the Lord wholeheartedly and in every aspect of our life,” the Pope said. “With this message, I would like again this year to help the entire Church experience this time of grace anew, with joy and in truth.”

He also said that the Church would again be celebrating the “24 Hours for the Lord” initiative, which is a day for the whole Church to focus on the celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation, within the context of Eucharistic adoration.

This year, it will take place March 9-10, he said, inspired by the words of Psalm 130:4, “With you is forgiveness.” In each diocese, at least one church will remain open for twenty-four consecutive hours, he said, offering opportunities for adoration and sacramental confession.

Led by Pope Francis, “24 Hours for the Lord” is a worldwide initiative which points to confession as a primary way to experience God’s merciful embrace. It was launched in 2014 under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.

Vatican City, Mar 9, 2018 / 04:16 pm (CNA).- Speaking at a presentation of a book on Humanae Vitae, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, stressed Wednesday that attempts to change the Chur… […]

Vatican City, Mar 15, 2018 / 03:37 pm (CNA).- In commemoration of the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’ election to the papacy, Penguin Random House has published a collection of the Pope’s reflections on the Our Father.

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